Part of being in the sports media industry is being able to adapt on a live show when something goes wrong. That doesn’t come easy, but thanks to his time doing digital work for ESPN, it is something Jason Fitz has become comfortable with.
Fitz was a guest on the GoJo with Mike Golic Jr. podcast and he told the story of the first time he covered the NFL Draft in 2019 on ESPN’s digital platform with Golic Jr., Domonique Foxworth, and others. There was one moment where he had to figure out on-the-fly on how to make everyone look good on the broadcast when something unexpected happened:
“ For anyone that has never watched digital shows, we don’t have commercials, we don’t have researchers, we don’t have a safety net. When I host College Football Live on TV, I have had things go wrong and it’s ok. You get a commercial, you regroup. Digitally, you don’t get that chance.”
“The first time we did the draft together, I remember looking at Domonique Foxworth for one pick and I was like ‘hey Dom, what do you think of this one?’ He was like, ‘I don’t know, never heard of the guy’. I was on this island and I figured out quickly how I can steer the conversation over to somebody else to make sure we look good. That moment for me was transcendent because I was like I can handle being on my feet.”
When Fitz had the opportunity to host Outside The Lines, that digital experience helped him during a time when technical issues happened that caused the show to lose both of their interviews in the first segment of the show:
“My life changed on OTL. I was hosting Outside The Lines. We had two interviews back-to-back, the first segment. They have you switch from one seat to the other. The intro is ready. I read the intro exactly as we script and I roll my chair to the first spot and I am looking at the camera and in my ear, they are like we don’t have it, we lost comms. Go to the next interview.”
Instead of panicking and having the show go off-the-rails, Fitz decided to let the audience know nothing was working and sent it to commercial:
“I just looked at the camera and I was like well guys, the beauty of live television. Nothing is working. So, we are going to take a break and we will see if we can get it right on the other side. When we went to a commercial, they got in my ear and they were like you handled that so well.“
“I realized in that moment that all the times you and I [Fitz and Golic Jr.] had done digital shows without a safety net prepared me. I am so comfortable now with chaos. That took a couple of years to honestly get my footing with.”
